MESOSEMIA. 23 



species are brown or black, but many are adorned with very 

 bright colours. 



In the following genera the sub-costal nervure is usually five- 

 branched. 



GENUS MESOSEMIA. 

 Mesoseniia, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 20 (1S16); West- 

 wood, Gen. Diurn. Lepid. p. 453 (1851); Godman and 

 Salvin, Biol. Centiali-Amer. Lepid. Rhop. i. p. 378 (1885) ; 

 Schatz and Rober, Exot. Schmett. ii. p. 237 (1892). 

 This is the largest genus of the whole Family, numbering 

 considerably over 100 species. They are of small or moderate 

 size, generally measuring from an inch to an inch and a half in 

 expanse. They are very numerous in South America, but only 

 sixteen are recorded from Central America. The fore-wings 

 are hardly longer than the hind-wings. The wings are rounded 

 and entire in most of the species, being very rarely pointed or 

 angulated, and never tailed. They are generally brown or 

 blue, brown banded with white or buff, or white banded with 

 brown, and most of the species have a round black eye just 

 before the middle of the fore-wings, with two or three white 

 pupils. By this character they can generally be recognised at 

 a glance ; but many of the white brown-banded species, which 

 have no eye spots, or else have a series towards the margins 

 of the wings, have much resemblance to various similarly- 

 coloured species of Eiiptychia, or even Theda. Some species 

 have brown fore wings, and white, blue, or tawny hind-wings. 

 The sub-costal nervure is five-branched in most of the species, 

 but only four-branched in some, showing (as in the case of 

 Euselasia) either that this character is not of absolute generic 

 importance in the Lemojiiidce^ or that these genera require 

 further sub-division. The palpi, and also the front legs of the 

 male, are extremely short in this genus. 

 Dr. Scudder has shown that the type is 



